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Apple has locked me out of my developer account

rambo.codes

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Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#321

Post by jjtheblunt »

kemayo wrote: post #202

Lots of people saying that Apple doesn't owe him any explanation, and that telling people why they're banned is just going to prompt "yes, but..." arguments in response. I've dealt with humans, so I'm sympathetic to that... and I've also been caught up by false-positives, so I can see how it can go horribly wrong. I feel that what's being missed here is that Apple, per Rambo, explicitly said they'd get back in touch…

Your last sentence, in parentheses (yay, Lisp!), is what I was thinking.

The person seems to be flagrantly defaming Apple, in tantrum fashion, because the person violated Apple rules and got scolded?

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#322

Post by threeseed »

saagarjha wrote: post #224
Causality1 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems very foolish to break the developer agreement without keeping yourself anonymous. It's his own fault that Apple was able to connect his account with an individual breaking their terms of service.

To my knowledge, Apple has not gone after people doing this in the past.

Yes they have.

It is routine for people who breaks the terms and conditions to have their account revoked.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#323

Post by saagarjha »

threeseed wrote: post #322
saagarjha wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To my knowledge, Apple has not gone after people doing this in the past.

Yes they have. It is routine for people who breaks the terms and conditions to have their account revoked.

Not for taking screenshots of developer betas.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#324

Post by marcus_holmes »

rootusrootus wrote: post #296
pdonis wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's not like the platform could exist without the ecosystem around it We developers would like to believe this is true, but I'm not sure it is. I don't think Apple would care if the third party developer ecosystem went away. They don't depend on it to sell their products.

I think it's fair to say that early on, third party developers added a lot of functionality that was lacking in the OS. Apple has steadily incorporated the more popular features so that is probably less true today, but there are still lots of bespoke tools that they are never going to provide. To use a personal example -- if only Android had a Tesla app, it would definitely be a factor in my choice for my next phone.…

There's a huge difference between indie developer apps and corporate apps.

I need my bank's app (well, all four of my banks' apps actually), my email provider's app, a few games, etc. I might have a couple of "indie" apps, maybe. But I could certainly live without them.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#325

Post by JohnFen »

Spivak wrote: post #124
JohnFen wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you don't actually need any access to Google's stuff to develop for Android, so Google can't lock you out and destroy your business. Google can just cause a lot of inconvenience.

I mean you can still develop and publish your APKs online but not being on the Play Store is enough to kill most apps. I mean if you're so popular/useful that users will seek you out independently you might be okay but there are a lot of shops where the store is their only marketing funnel.

Not being in the Play store means that you have to actually engage in marketing. This increases the cost and hassle, of course.

> there are a lot of shops where the store is their only marketing funnel.

Any business that only has one "funnel" is a business at risk, whether the Play store is involved or not.

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#326

Post by jakobegger »

rmsaksida wrote: post #116
rgovostes wrote: post #39

> I’m just an indie developer trying to make good products. Apple should separate Rambo's software development from his reporting rather than retaliate against him, if that is indeed what is happening, but it is a little disingenuous for him to make the above claim. Rambo reverse engineers Apple products and publishes findings on 9to5Mac.com, in particular future product references that have slipped prematurely into…

Even if that's all true, and even if Apple has good reasons to lock his account, why not just tell him the reason? I don't understand why tech companies have this passive aggressive attitude when users violate their rules of witholding information and giving some vague canned responses when asked about what's going on. Just tell him what happened in detail.

Someone at Apple probably said, is there something we can do about those leaks from Rambo?

Then someone probably said, well we can block his dev account, may make it harder for him to reverse engineer everything right away.

Then they told someone else to block him, and they flipped a switch somewhere.

Nobody documents anything, and a few weeks later, when Rambo manages to escalate this through the support team, noone knows the background and noone can tell him what the issue is.

That's my speculation how things like that happen....

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#327

Post by zepto »

saagarjha wrote: post #273
zepto wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. We actually do know quite a lot about the situation . We can see he has very likely violated the NDA. By not mentioning this, and presenting himself as just another developer trying to make nice apps, we can see that he clearly has the capacity to be disingenuous. Most developers don’t reverse engineer Apple software and supply the results for publication. We also know that if Apple froze people’s account…

I am "just another developer" who has probably violated the NDA as well. Reverse engineering beta OSes and distributing information about it totally OK, the problem is when you take screenshots.

Have you published information about undisclosed features in the press?

Why is distributing information covered by the NDA ok, but screenshots not?

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#328

Post by marcus_holmes »

FussyZeus wrote: post #176
ebiester wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it is in their long term interest - seeing the way Apple and Google treat developers has stopped me, at the very least, from putting time into learning their ecosystems and choosing it for a side project. It may be true that there are plenty of people who will replace me, but the aggregate effect can eventually hurt their marketplaces.

Your hypothesis comes up against the App Store breaking records each year and making tons of money for those who participate. It's the most profitable mobile store by a huge margin, and it's not as if these policies are new, this has been more or less the environment it's operated in since it opened.

Not all those who participate. The vast (overwhelming) majority of app developers don't make a dime from it. A tiny, tiny minority make some side cash from it. A vanishingly small set of maybe a few hundred people maybe earn enough from it to make a living doing it (not developing apps for other people, but developing their own app products).

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#329

Post by marcus_holmes »

fjabre wrote: post #208
atonse wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Said it better than I could've – there are some pretty obvious reasons why Rambo's account could've been suspended, the clear violation of NDAs being the main one, with him publishing information about unreleased products. I'm honestly kind of surprised they let him keep his Developer account all this time. My bigger issue here is the complete lack of transparency or visibility into the process. It's this kind of stu…

This 100%. Government needs to get involved. Apple is clearly using its monopolistic power as shield against any kind of accountability. Devs have absolutely no recourse against this monopoly.

OK, I'll bite.

So in this case, a dev has (we think) broken the ToS of his agreement with Apple by publishing information before launch.

What do you think the government should do about this?

Re: Apple has locked me out of my developer account

#330

Post by garyb2 »

dkonofalski wrote: post #117
jon889 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if they did warn him by automated email, when he finally got through to them it would be much more professional to say that he broke the agreement and that's the reason than string him along

I agree with that statement but I don't think they're stringing him along. We only have his side of the story and, based on previous instances of similar behavior, that story is likely incredibly biased, flawed, and not reflective of what's actually happening. In this case, there may even be a lawsuit involved so it's not as simple as a customer service rep telling them "you've been banned".

Perhaps.

My experience with Apple is that they do what they want and getting anything out of them occurs on their timeline. If you don't like it, get stuffed, they won't budge.

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